The Myopic Limitation of Capitalism

Under the auspices of capitalism as most of us know it, the goal of existing within the system is to accumulate as much capital as possible. As an owner of capital, you can license it, rent it, or put it to other good use so that your capital works to create more capital for you, and you, ultimately, have to work less. As a system of societal development, the hope that Adam Smith saw was that as people strive to attain more capital for themselves, the people in their periphery will also benefit from the trickle-down leftovers and the challenge of competition as more and more people strive for capital through which they can increase their wealth.

The challenge of venerating the selfishness required to make capitalism effective is that selfishness is not the highest of our virtues, thus capitalism fails in truly delivering what emotionally evolved creatures need in order to create a more perfect union. Beyond the fear-based propaganda that has been used to maintain control of the masses for capital gain, even the United States Federal Government has recognized the virtues of caring for at least a community within our society and has enacted a number of programs throughout the military and other government entities that are much more similar to communism or socialism than capitalism. Unfortunately, in mainstream society, capitalism as the end-all-be-all system we embrace, the vast majority of our energy goes toward empowering a non virtue and cultivating a society of selfishness.